Will Lance Guidry make college football history this bowl season?

With Willie Taggart departed for South Florida, defensive coordinator Lance Guidry well step in as the interim head coach for Western Kentucky as they face Central Michigan in the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl on Dec. 26.

That potentially put Guidry at an interesting place in college football history. Can anyone name another coach that has coached two bowl games as the interim head coach at two separate programs within two years?

Serving as an interim head coach is not an easy role, but Guidry’s first go-round was a major success. After Mike Haywood left Miami (Ohio) for Pittsburgh after the 2010 season, Guidry stepped in to lead the RedHawks in against Middle Tennessee in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Guidry’s pre-game speech (featured below) blew up on the Internet and was featured on SportsCenter for weeks. The speech worked, as Miami won the game, 35-21.

Guidry left Miami (Ohio) for the defensive coordinator role under Taggart at Western Kentucky. Guidry helped the Hilltoppers improve from 2-10 the year before his arrival to consecutive 7-5 seasons, capped by the program’s first bowl game later this month. The coach immediately boosted WKU’s defensive standing, dropping their scoring defense average from 33.2 points per game in the year before his arrival (99th nationally) to 24.8 points per game in 2011. Western Kentucky’s total defense ranking has dropped from 69th in 2010 to 53rd a year ago and all the way down to 23rd this fall.

Guidry is a “players coach”. They love playing fo him and he gets the best out of his guys. Western Kentucky will do their diligence and consider a number of candidates; but their is no doubt they have a great coach in their locker room right now.

We’re not sure what speech Guidry has up his sleeve for Western Kentucky, but here’s betting it’s a good one.

National columnist - Zach joined the staff in 2012...and has been attempting to improve Doug and Scott's writing ability ever since (to little avail). Outside of football season, you can find him watching the San Antonio Spurs reading Game of Thrones fan theories.